RFI Brand New ATC System A1.docx

Request for Information Introduction/Purpose The FAA seeks information pertaining to President Trump’s and Secretary Duffy’s initiative to implement a brand-new Air Traffic Control System (ATC) over the next three years. See here for more information: U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Unveils Plan to Build Brand New State-of-the-Art Air Traffic Control System | US Department of Transportation.

In this endeavor, the FAA is seeking an Integrator to play a key role in upgrading the National Airspace System (NAS). The Integrator would be fully responsible for executing the Secretary’s vision for the brand-new ATC. The Integrator will conduct all necessary activities to obtain the necessary facilities, acquire capabilities, and to deploy new technologies, including as it relates to existing FAA contracts. Note that the Integrator would be excluded from competing for contracts that are part of this project. See Appendix 1 for additional information on existing contracts.

The FAA is open to new ideas, new technologies, new procurement strategies, new implementation structures, alternative solutions, and any other considerations that will enhance the mission of a new ATC. The FAA outlines three potential relationship models among the FAA, the Integrator, and other contractors in Appendix 2. The FAA has a strong preference for a single Integrator. The FAA will consider other models.

There are five areas of interest that the FAA has identified as part of the new ATC system:

1. Telecommunications;

2. Radio Communications;

3. Surveillance;

4. Automation; and

5. Facilities.

Nature of this RFI

(a) This is not a commitment to issue a further screening information request or request for proposals;

(b) The FAA is not seeking or accepting unsolicited proposals;

(c) The FAA will not pay for any information received or costs incurred in preparing any response to this RFI; and

(d) Any costs associated with any response to this RFI are solely at the interested vendor’s expense.

FAA Questions:

Approach For all these responses, where applicable, please indicate which of the five areas of interest (Telecom, Radios, Surveillance, Automation, and Facilities) your responses pertain to. You should emphasize experience in as many of the five areas of interest as apply.

1. What is your vision/approach to implementing the brand-new air traffic control system within the timeframe outlined by the Secretary of Transportation?

2. What acquisition strategies will you deploy to bring new technologies to the NAS? Note: the FAA is open to innovative acquisition strategies and has acquisition flexibilities beyond the FAA’s traditional Acquisition Management System.

3. What business model would you propose and why would it work best for the FAA in this instance? The FAA is willing to consider innovative and unconventional approaches.

4. The FAA has proposed three potential relationship models in Appendix 2—a Prime Integrator model in which the Integrator awards all contracts anew and existing contracts are cancelled; a Non-Prime Integrator Model in which the FAA holds all contracts but the Integrator manages and oversees the contracts for the FAA; and a Hybrid Prime Integrator Model in which the Integrator awards new contracts for those systems where a contract is not already in place and existing contracts are either transferred to the Integrator or retained by the FAA but managed by the Integrator. What model would you propose and why? You are not limited to the potential models in Appendix 2. Please explain assumptions underlying your model.

5. What structure would you propose to provide the Integrator responsibility for the new ATC while working alongside existing FAA program teams and FAA contractors (if appropriate)? (See Appendix 1 for more information related to existing FAA NAS-related contracts).

6. How would you ensure that existing FAA contractors, as listed in Appendix 1, are accountable for meeting milestones?

7. How would you ensure that system contractors you procure as subcontractors will be accountable?

8. What is your financial management plan for a project of this size?

9. How will you contain costs?

10. How would you ensure the entire project is completed by the end of 2028? Please provide an estimated timeline highlighting major milestones. How will you enforce and incentivize meeting or beating the schedule?

11. How will you incentivize cost savings?

12. How will you ensure all parties to the greater air traffic control system effort are invested in mission success? What performance metrics and tools will you use to ensure this occurs?

13. What will you do in the first 90 days from contract execution?

14. Describe the type of access to C-suite executives the FAA will have. How will your executives ensure oversight within the organization?

15. How will you manage supply chain risk?

16. What constraints around funding does your company have that would be necessary to accommodate and what accommodations do you propose?

17. Based on your understanding of the challenges in the air traffic control system, what are the most important aspects that should be considered for the selection of an Integrator?

18. How should the FAA approach data rights to a brand-new air traffic control system that likely requires continuous updating and enhancement?

19. What commercial solutions should the FAA be exploring?

20. What metrics can the FAA apply to measure the performance of an Integrator?

21. How will you address security concerns in the new air traffic control system? Specifically, please address cybersecurity and supply chain issues.

22. How do you envision ownership, operation, monitoring, and maintenance of the brand-new air traffic control system?

23. How will you help the FAA continuously adopt new technology to improve safety and efficiency of NAS operations?

24. How would you accelerate the testing process to facilitate rapid adoption of technology and new capabilities?

25. How should we evaluate potential integrators?

26. Beyond a written proposal, what evaluation methods will help us distinguish between offerors?

27. What do you think are the FAA’s top three obstacles in achieving this plan?

28. What do you need from the FAA to be successful? Specifically, what equipment, authorities, federal employee know-how, and FAA-contracted services will you require?

29. The FAA’s proposed organizational conflict of interest (OCI) and firewall model is discussed below. FAA invites comments on how to avoid OCIs.

Experience

30. What is your experience executing a plan of this scope and magnitude? Please provide relevant examples (both Government and non-Government).

31. What is your experience managing large contractors in disparate sectors? What is your experience managing contractors across the five specified areas of interest?

32. Describe—specifically—how you have handled underperforming contractors? Explain how your company recovered from underperforming contractors that impacted contract performance and meeting company objectives?

33. What projects do you have that will compete for the resources required to succeed in building the new air traffic control system?

34. Which non-personnel resources necessary for project success do you have access to now? Which ones will you need to acquire and how long will that take? Be specific.

35. Will you have sufficient personnel resources to dedicate to this project on a full-time basis? Please provide examples of specific team members that you believe will provide the necessary expertise and skill-level who will work on this project full-time. If you do not have a specific team member, please provide the types of labor categories for key personnel that you believe are necessary for this project and describe how you would go about locating and retaining those personnel in a timely manner.

36. How can the FAA ensure that we are receiving engineering, planning, project management, and other skills that are necessary to succeed in this project?

37. What is your experience with organized labor?

38. What is your experience with performance and completion incentives and completing large projects early and successfully?

Note: experience is not necessarily more important than approach.

OCIs and Firewalls Due to organizational conflicts of interest that cannot be mitigated, the Integrator will be excluded from competing for contracts that are part of this project.

The Integrator will have access to source selection information that will be unavailable to other offerors, will assist the FAA in the development of requirements and development of evaluation criteria, and may assist the FAA in evaluating performance on existing and new contracts. If the Integrator has existing contracts that support the brand-new ATC, the Integrator may have to cease performance on those contracts. This will be subject to a determination by the FAA.

Point of Contact To contact the FAA relating to this RFI, use this email address: BrandNewATCSystem@faa.gov.

Submittal Requirements In your response, please include the following:

· capabilities statement;

· responses to FAA questions;

· additional inputs; and

· contact information.

Responses must be submitted to the Government at the email address above no later than 4 p.m. eastern standard time on Monday, June 23, 2025. Please note FAA will hold vendor responses confidential and they will not be publicly disclosed.

Timeline and Budget:

This project is on an accelerated timeline. Accordingly, please ensure your teams have the right personnel available to execute quickly.

Note on funding: the FAA will be seeking additional funding from Congress to support the brand-new air traffic control system.

Industry Days:

The FAA will host industry days at the Department of Transportation headquarters in Washington, D.C. from June 10 through June 11 with a virtual attendance option. Information from industry days may be posted. A tour of systems will be provided at the William J. Hughes Technical Center for Advanced Aerospace in Atlantic City, NJ on June 12, 2025. Attendance is optional and more information about Industry Days will be posted separately. The FAA reserves the right to limit the number of attendees.

One-on-Ones The FAA will host one-on-one sessions with companies who: 1) are committed to, and capable of, competing for the role of prime integrator for this effort; and 2) the FAA determines would provide helpful market research in selecting the prime integrator. One-on-one sessions will be conducted on June 16 through 18 at the FAA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

RSVP for one or more industry days or one-on-one session will be required. Information will be posted separately. EDIT: Amendment 1 (6/4/2026) adds the following link for interested parties to sign up for Brand New Air Traffic Control System industry days:

Brand New Air Traffic Control System Industry Day Events Tickets, Multiple Dates | Eventbrite

Appendix 1 Information Regarding Existing FAA NAS-Related contracts

See attached statements of objectives (SOO) and statements of work (SOW) from relevant contracts. The SOO or SOW is typically part of Section C of a government contract.

Appendix 2 image1.emf image2.png image3.png image4.png